Orlando Diving Club
Results
USA Junior Nationals
Aug 2nd
Cherie Hammond, gold 1M. WORLD TEAM MEMBER
Shelby Lerew, silver Synchro Platform. (8th on 3M)….
.Tom Neubacher, bronze Platform, missed WORLD TEAM by only .20! Great job!
Wallace Layland, bronze Platform, missed WORLD TEAM by only .90! Great job!
Finalists:
Sydney Couch
Rileigh Knox
Joey Dowd
Avery Saunders
ORLANDO DIVERS ADVANCE TO USA DIVING SUMMER ZONE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Jun 17th
ORLANDO, Florida – 16 divers from Team Orlando Diving have advanced to the USA Diving Summer Junior Zone D Championships as a result of their performances at the USA Diving Junior Summer Region 7 Championships, held this past weekend in Moultrie, Georgia. The region meet was one of 10 Region Championships conducted throughout the country over the course of this past and upcoming weekends.
Girls 11+ Under 3M. Avery Saunders 3rd, Grayson Kim 6th, Maggie Merriman 4th.
The top 15 finishers on each springboard event from Region 7 Championships qualify for the Zone D Championships, which will be held June 30th – July 3rd at the Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Top finishers for Team Orlando include Cinzia Calabretta, top girls point leader for the Meet, winning Gold Medals on 1 and 3 Meter and Silver on Platform in the 16-18 age group – Chelsea Uranaka, taking the Silver on 3 Meter, also in the 16-18 age group – 14-15 year olds Sydney Couch taking Gold on 3 meter and Platform and Bronze on 1 meter and Shelby Lerew winning Silver 1 meter.
The younger team members also did well with 12-13 year old 1 meter medal winners Rileigh Knox and Mya Kraeger taking first and second with the same results in the 3 meter contest. Mya also went on to take Gold in Platform – sharing the medal stand with her sister Emma who took Silver on Platform, with team mate Abigail Howell placing 3rd .
Brothers Joey and Jack Dowd took home Silver Medals in Platform in their respective age groups with Joey tacking on a Bronze in his 1 meter event.
In the 11 and under Group – Platform placements were Maggie Merriman, Avery Saunders and Grayson Kim taking the top 3 spots while Avery Saunders took 3rd in 3 meter.
Hanging out at the hotel.
Divers finishing in the Top Six in Fort Lauderdale will advance to the USA Diving’s Speedo Junior National Championships to be held in Tucson, Arizona July 23rd – 27th while Divers finishing in 7th through 12th place will earn the right to compete in USA Diving’s Age Group National Championships July 29th – 31st – also being held in Tucson.
Cherie Hammond of the Dr. Phillips area has pre-qualified for the USA National Championships by placing in the Top Three at Winter East National Championships held at Miami of Ohio University in April – thereby bypassing the necessity to compete in Moultrie and Fort Lauderdale. Additionally – Wallace Layland of South Orlando is also pre-qualified as a member of the 2009 Junior Pan Am Team.
Additional Team Members advancing from their Regional performance are Lauren Barton, Victoria Chan and Erin Potter.
USA Diving is recognized as the national governing body of the sport of diving within the United States.
For more information on the local diving team, contact Head Coach Wendy Lerew of Team Orlando Diving at (407) 491-5596. Also visit www.USADiving.org to learn more about USA Diving and the Junior Olympic Diving Program. Entire Meet Results can be found at www.DiveMeets.com.
Junior East National Championships
Apr 13th
Team Orlando competed in the Junior East National Championships at Miami of Ohio University, Oxford April 9-11.
We had 22 divers qualify from the Regionals, only 17 attended. We came 2nd in the Team Championship.
A few of our key divers were missing. Next year let’s bring a full team?
Highlights Tom Neubacher won the 16-18 3M. He nailed his reverse 2 1/2 for 9′s and 10′s!! Cherie Hammond came back from a month long back injury to win double bronze against a very difficult field. Shelby Lerew won her first East National bronze medal in a tough 14-15 3M contest. She was 4th on 1M, 10 points from gold. Sydney Couch dived brilliantly in 14-15 3M. She had the gold in the bag but missed her very difficult reverse 2 1/2 ending up 4th. Syd came back strong the next day and won the bronze on 1M, 4 points from gold. Great job!
The TOD divers who won top 12 medals and scored team points were:
11 and Under
Grace Cable 8th 1M, 5th 3M
Maggie Merriman 12th 1M, 11th 3M
12-13
Mya Kraeger 12th 1M, 9th 3M
Rileigh Knox 11th 1M
14-15
Shelby Lerew 3rd 3M, 4th 1M
Sydney Couch 4th 3M, 3rd 1M
16-18
Tom Neubacher 1st 3M, 7th 1M
Cherie Hammond 3rd 3M, 3rd 1M
Cinzia Calabretta 8th 3M, 9th 1M
GREAT JOB EVERYBODY!!!!
2009 Camo International
Mar 30th
Wally Layland at CAMO
Team Orlando Diving’s Sydney Couch, Wallace Layland and Cinzia Calabretta traveled to Montreal. Canada Dec. 2-7 to compete in one of North America’s most prestigious diving events.
Sydney, only 13, diving against 14-15 year olds, barley missed the gold on 3M coming 2nd to hometown favorite Eloise Belanger. She came a very respectable 6th on platform. Wallace, also 13, dived to 5th place in her first ever 10meter platform event, and got the bronze medal.
Cinzia did a great job on 3M, she was 2nd in the prelim. She finalled on 10M, her first full 10 meter list ever in competition. Congrats girls!!
Age Group National Championships
Mar 30th
Avery Saunders: 11 + Under. First time National qualifier, 8 years old, youngest in the competition, “Little Bit”.
Grace Cable: 11+Under. First time National qualifier, placed 6th in the 3M Final. Reverse dive for 8’s…wow!
Jack Dowd: 11 + Under. First time National qualifier, placed 6th in the 1M and 3M Finals. Very good performance.
Victoria Chan: 12-13. First time National qualifier, placed 13th in the 1M Prelim, barely missing making the finals.
Shannon Potter: 14-15. 11th place 3M and 6th place 1M. Good performance in a very tough age group.
Cinzia Calabretta: 16-18. 9th place on platform. She broke her hand right before Nationals . Very tough to dive platform under the circumstances. We are so proud of how tough she was and how well she dived! Her back 1 ½ with 2 ½ twists was the highest scoring dive of the contest, she received 8 and 8 ½! Way to go Legs/Cinzoid!
Cheri Hammond: 16-18. 7th place on 3M. She performed 2 of the hardest dives in the meet.
Junior National Championships
Mar 30th
Wallace Layland was our top diver. Wally won the 12-13 Platform event on the first day. She was 2nd on 1M and 4th on 3M. Wallace has made the United States Junior National Team and will travel to Calgary, Canada Sept. 8th-14th to compete in the Junior Pan American Championships. Nice “Bear”
Thea Vock age 16-18 came 2nd on 1M and dived brilliantly to place 3rd on Platform. She placed 4th on 3M, and barely missed making the US National Team by only a point. Thea won both springboard prelims and was the BEST, most consistent all around diver of the meet.
Sydney Couch, thrilled us all when she hit a set of optionals in the 14-15 girls 3M Final for straight 8’s. She hit every optional dive in the Final and placed 2nd! She was fantastic on 10M too, finishing 4th . “Syd Vicious” missed making the US National team by less than a point….bummer, but we’re so proud of your year!!! You’ll get ‘em next year kid.
Shelby Lerew learned a platform list of dives this year for the first time and placed 5th in the 14-15 Platform event.
She is only 13, but because of international rules, her late birthday puts her with the 14-15 year olds. Good job “Doo-Doo”.
Tom Neubacher, 16-18 placed 6th on 1M and 3M. He was 9th on Platform. Tom will be a Senior this year. His performance opened the eyes of many college coaches looking to recruit talent to the NCAA.
Joey Dowd placed 8th on 12-13 1M and 12th on platform. Joe is a former US National Team member who took 2 years off diving due to illness. He is back, and has accomplished a lot this year.
Chelsea Uranaka qualified for the Nationals on Platform. She is traditionally and springboard diver, but turned it up a notch and learned a platfrom list of dives at the end of the summer to get to the Nationals. Nice “Squirt”.
Senior National Championships
Mar 30th
Team Orlando had 4 divers at the Senior National Championships; Tom Neubacher 3M, Mike Neubacher, Platform, Cheri Hammond 3M and Thea Vock 1M, 3M and Platform. The National Championships is attended by all Olympians and US Open National level divers. Mike Neubacher finished 8th in Men’s Platform, our top diver of the meet! Mike will be attending Florida State University this fall. Thea Vock placed 4th in the Women’s 3m Semi-Final and finished 9th overall. Thea placed 6th in the Platform Quarter-Final , barely missed making the final by 2 points.
Tom dived very consistently making the Semi-Final.
